Cleveland Museum of Art

Bamboo in Moonlight

Date: 1500s
Medium: hanging scroll; ink on paper
Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
Department: Korean Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 153663

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

This painting depicts the full moon shining through a stand of bamboo, and for Joseon literati it would have conveyed the sense of life in harmony with nature to which they aspired. As one of the "four gentlemen" along with plum trees, orchids, and chrysanthemums, bamboo, which has immense flexibility, allowing it bent to extremes without breaking—symbolize a gentleman's noble virtue. Here, the painter depicted the shining moon rising above a bamboo tree to create a meditative nightly scene. This painting is currently in the Korean art collection, but some stylistic features suggest that it may be Japanese.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
Provenance: ?–1987: (Kenzaburo Marui, Osaka, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) | 1987–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH